Au Pair: Agnieszka SawkoHost Family: Tomek family in Iowa

Agnieszka Sawko joined our family in October 2011. In the short time that she has been with us, she has had a tremendously positive impact on each member of our family. She has, in fact, become an integral part of our family…cherished by all of us. I was very reluctant to host an au pair. Because I am a single mother with four very active children, I was concerned about an au pair becoming “another child” to parent. I was afraid that the kids would resent an au pair, that an au pair might be loud and disruptive to the household, and so on. People had warned me about potential pitfalls, and I saw so many potential problems. As I explored the possibility, the potential benefits began to outweigh those risks in my mind. I looked through dozens of au pair profiles, and I was drawn to Agnieszka as a good fit for our family. I was impressed by her thoughtful, open, and sincere answers to the profile questions. Although she didn’t meet all of my criteria (she didn’t have a lot of confidence in driving), I decided to contact her anyway. She responded quickly, and was very flexible in scheduling time for a conversation. She asked great questions, had carefully read my host family letter, and was eager to “meet” my kids via skype. When I emailed her with more questions, she quickly sent detailed, thoughtful responses. After our skype visit, we were all very excited to invite Agnieszka to match with our family. I am so glad we did. When she arrived, Agnieszka quickly assimilated into our family life. She brought carefully-chosen gifts and articles from Poland to teach us about her heritage and culture, and the transition was nearly seamless, much easier than I ever could have imagined. She immediately assumed responsibility for not only the children’s physical needs, but their emotional needs as well. Though the time of her arrival and transition was a very stressful one in our household, she handled it all with extraordinary patience, acceptance, strength, and grace. Agnieszka has been a stable, loving, understanding, and gentle presence. She seems to know exactly when to be firm and when to be more forgiving/flexible. She is a good role model for the kids and leads by example with healthy eating, activity, respectful interactions, and hard work and perseverance. She has enhanced family gatherings, trips, and celebrations with activities and traditions from her native Poland, and she is constantly sharing/teaching a creative craft or cooking project with the kids (with many yummy results). In addition to helping to manage very busy activity schedules of four children (school, soccer, basketball, scouts, piano, chess, orchestra, and other after-school activities), she pays attention to the children’s concerns, behaviors, emotions and is very proactive with problem-solving and communicating these things with me. She jumps in and helps with school preparation in the mornings, homework, discipline, kitchen clean-up, etc. She goes out of her way to make us all feel special…from baking me a delicious cake with the kids for my birthday, to filling our shoes with St. Nicholas Day treats and folding beautiful origami sculptures to decorate the kitchen to welcome us home from a short trip. She often takes photos of the kids doing their fun activities and sends them to me during the day while I’m working. Her photos are wonderful. She is a talented artist, very mature and intelligent, and her smile, laugh and positive attitude are absolutely delightful. She respects our household, and seems to never tire of the children. She is even becoming a very good driver! After just a couple of months, Agnieszka has become a beloved “big sister” in our family. When my 9 year-old son’s friend asked him, “What is an au pair?” he responded, “like a sister.” When Agnieszka recently sent me a link to something fun for the kids, she described it as something for “our kids,” which made me smile out loud. In fact, it did turn out that having an au pair is very much like parenting another child…in all of those wonderful ways. We all adore having her in the house and miss her when she isn’t with us. I am proud of her accomplishments, pleased to introduce her to our friends, and absolutely love discovering America through her eyes. Agnieszka Sawko has made our lives better in ways that I would never have dreamed possible. I wish we could keep her with us forever. She is definitely the au pair of the year in our book!